Europe's complacency has allowed Italy to become a xenophobic place

Just in case you had trouble comprehending that the Italy of Matteo Salvini is morphing into a fascistic state, along come the authorities to give you yet more evidence.

Short of the kind of proper war that fascists think good for a people, Italy has declared war on... non-governmental agencies, humanitarian charities and defenceless refugees – a formidable coalition to be pitted against armed police and gunboats.

It seems that the Italian state believes itself to be in mortal danger from refugees carrying infectious diseases such as TB, and, rather more bizarrely, the idea that a cargo of clothing can transmit HIV/Aids.

Clownish as the Italian government has become, this is beyond parody. Italy is not some Aids-free paradise in any case, any more than anywhere else. It should go without saying that no one has ever caught Aids through wearing a pair of jeans, but the notion is so outlandish that perhaps some people will believe it, as if some new breakthrough in the health sciences has been achieved in Rome. What Italians should be really concerned about is being infected with the virus of fascism.

What Salvini’s government is really doing is fairly obvious: they are simply using whatever ruse they can to evade their international responsibilities. If a leaky boat struggling across the Mediterranean is rescued by a seaworthy vessel run by an NGO, then the NGO has the perfect right to take the refugees to safety in the nearest port, which in this case would be in Italy.

Once there, they can have their cases examined and accepted or rejected, according to international law. If they are ill, then they can be treated, irrespective. It is as simple as that. There is no clause in the Geneva Convention or any other accord that allows a refugee to be sent “home” (wherever that may be) if they are sick.

Indeed, the chances are that, after an arduous journey at the mercy of people-traffickers, they will indeed be unwell, through no fault of their own. They are often fleeing near certain death, after all.

Fascism is a doctrine that prides itself on its nationalism and its ruthlessness.

Mercy and compassion are regarded as decadent, weaknesses associated with feeble democratic states run by gangs of selfish corrupt politicians and judges – what we in Britain contemptuously term “the establishment” or “liberal elite” – or “Enemies of the People”, in that notorious Daily Mail headline.

Of course, the public has always thought that most politicians are “only in it for themselves”. As they old joke goes: “Please don’t tell my mother I’m a politician, she thinks I play the piano in a brothel.”

Yet what we see today is quite insidious and dangerous, and is getting to form a hold in Europe. It is that traditional contempt for politicians is becoming contempt for democracy itself. That is the most terrifying thing that has emerged for the economic and other troubles of recent times.

A century ago a man named Mussolini led the fascists’ charge in Europe. Now, he has modernday heirs and successors, sharper suited and more telegenic maybe, but with much the same outlook.

This new xenophobia and heartlessness is not a uniquely Italian phenomenon, however. Across Europe far-right parties are gaining ground in places that, not so long ago, would have been unimaginable.

We have grown used to it: we should not. From France and Sweden to Hungary and Poland, they are on the march. In the European parliament elections next summer, these parties will be sure to make spectacular gains – and what a strange place Brussels will be then.

They find it easy to capitalise on the migrant crisis, and, to be fair to the Italians, the European Union has shown a woeful lack of solidarity with the southern nations that have had to deal with the crisis – Italy, Malta and Greece. So the failure to defeat fascism and the causes of fascism is not Italy’s alone. It is Europe’s failure, and its shame.